1. A series of gastric banding seminars are going to be organized on the 1st and 3rd day of the month by at Bingham Memorial Hospital. The seminars will be held during evenings, from six till seven p.m. in an attempt to help people have a better understanding of the obesity related issues.

During the past years, obesity was considered a sign of weakness, and people were blamed for having this condition. People were asked to keep a strict diet and do physical exercises. And back in the past, the weight loss surgery was not considered a good option.

Today obesity is considered to be a disease and, at the same time, a factor that determines many other secondary medical conditions. Weight loss surgeries are nowadays considered valuable methods of treating the obese persons.

Louis Kraml, CEO of Bingham Memorial Hospital, is interested in changing people’s mentality, considering the fact that obese people can be safely treated using minimal invasive surgical operations that in the end, help people eat less quantities of food.

This new type of surgery is called laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding. The seminars are free, but people need to register in order to participate. The Bariatric Team will be attending the seminars as well, in order to answer all possible questions.

2. Bingham Memorial Hospital has announced the results of an independent study which tried to determine the economic impact of the hospital in the geographical are around it.

The study was conducted by representatives from Boot Strap Solutions and the University of Nevada and the results have proved that the economic impact on the region was close to 600 million dollars during the last 12 years. Louis Kraml, the CEO of the hospital, has stated that he is very proud of the results acquired and of the fact that residents in the area of east Idaho were the first who benefitted from the positive economic impact that the hospital has been having in the region.

According to the study, the hospital provided over 1700 jobs, close to 65 million dollars in labor income, having a total economic impact of about 90 million dollars. Bingham Memorial Hospital is the fifth largest employer in Bingham County; it has hired more than 600 doctors in 2011. And the good news doesn’t end here: all the revenue generated by the hospital is invested in the hospital, allowing the local community to benefit for high quality medical services.

3. Bingham Memorial Hospital was awarded the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant, and the funds will be used in order to create a national model for improving patient outcomes.

The hospital was the only one in the region that has received this prize, and this is a strong indicator of the high quality of medical services that patients can benefit from. Louis Kraml, CEO of BMH, has declared that this way the hospital can thus build an easy to follow model that has the potential to help all the rural hospitals.

1. A new watch is capable of measuring people’s blood oxygen levels as well as the heart rate, and instantly sends the data to doctors. Oxitone is the name of the Israel-based business company that has created this device, which can save the lives of many sick people.

Pulse oximeters are extremely useful in determining if the oxygen comes in the right amount and if the heart beat has regular values. These values are measured in hospitals and emergency situations with the help of several medical devices, wires and stands. But now this can be done a lot easier with the help of this watch.

The device can be worn during all sorts of activities, and is capable of informing and alerting the owner when something unusual is happening. This way the person that has such a medical problem can immediately see a doctor and get the necessary help.

2. In Taiwan, the scientists have created a prototype for teeth embedded sensors that understand oral activity like eating, drinking, smoking and brushing the teeth. The data is then sent to the dentist in order to inform him on the owner habits.

The device was created by a group of scientists from Taiwan University and it consists of a small chip with an accelerometer and a Bluetooth connection. The sensor detects the movements and recognizes the type of activity that is going on. The accuracy of the device is around 94%.

3. A new device, the size of a pen, cleans the blood of potentially deadly viruses. The device was created in an effort to help people clean their blood outside the hospital. The Hemopurfier was developed by Aethlon Medical and it does pretty much the same as the medical device used by people with kidney failure, which regularly need to eliminate excess water and waste in the blood. The Hemopurifier is different from dialyze devices as it pumps antibodies in the blood. These antibodies can then attach to the viruses present in the blood, thus cleaning the blood of the patient. The device will prove to be helpful for the existing patients, but also in cases when the treatment is needed in the event of a bio terrorist attack.

4. Who does not want to get rid of stress? PIP is a new device that was created so that it detects stress when held in the hand and, at the very same time, helps the owner understand what to do in order to get rid of it. The device can measure moisture and heat that, when present at high levels, indicate stress and discomfort. This small machine can then send the collected data to a smartphone.

5. With the help of Match, autistic persons can be taught to cook. This is a color coded system that can guide the autistic person through preparing food. The system was created at Syracuse University and is made out of cooking tools which are colored in a certain way, so that the entire cooking process is more organized.

It is well known that kitchen is a place that can confuse the autistic persons a lot, but with the help of the colorful tools, things can become a lot easier for them. The kit is made of four colors and shape coded pots, so that the autistic person can help to separate different ingredients and also measure them in order to prepare the desired food recipe.

1. Hello Compost has launched a wise project meant to encourage people composing: low income families bring organic waste and receive credits in exchange. A similar project has been successfully developed in Mexico City and is in progress in New York City. With the received credits, the low income families can buy fresh products.

People in many parts of the globe have been taught to separate the recyclable matters, and it seemed that composting the organic rubbish would be useful for all of us. Hello Compost came with a brilliant idea that proved to be useful: to offer rewards to those that get involved in the program. The families that want to get involved receive odor blocking bags to put in their kitchen; they can used to store the organic waste. When a bag gets filled, it is collected and weighed by a nonprofit organization, which calculates the credits the families will receive as an incentive.

2. The Magical Book Reader is a new device that can make going to bed a lot more pleasant, especially for younger kids. It is a device which gets attached to the kid’s book and it can play recordings made by the kid’s loved ones. There is also a camera that points at the page read by the kid, so that the recording that is played will properly fit the story. In other words, the device easily recognizes the page the kid is reading. The device is of great help for parents that are away from home, which can this way interact with their kids.

3. A throw able 360 degree camera may prove to be of great help in rescue operations. When thrown in the air, the camera can get useful pictures that the eyes cannot catch and can be very helpful to its owners. The camera is similar in size with a tennis ball and has four cameras which take pictures that can build a panoramic view of the entire area.

The images are then sent to a monitor using a wireless connection. The device is considered to be of great help especially in emergency situations, in military reconnaissance, mapping or even movie making.

4. What does the majority of people do with half eaten or half used fruits or vegetables? In many cases those are thrown away… but this is no longer the only solution. The rubber caps have proved to be useful in keeping the food fresh for long periods of time. The rubber caps are created so that home cooks preserve the fruits and vegetables that did not end up in the food they have been cooking. With their help, the fruit or vegetable flesh is covered and spoiling does not occur so rapidly. The rubber covers are created in many colors and shapes, so that they fit almost all fruits and vegetables.

5. All the kids are afraid of going to the hospital, the same way many adults do. Alberta Children’s Hospital has bought a talking robot that can distract kids during the uncomfortable medical procedures. MEDI is the name of the robot that can really make life of the kids in hospital a lot easier.

6. Have you ever been chasing a vacant parking spot? South Koreans have come up with the idea of alerting the drivers when free parking lots are available. The method is a real interesting and less expensive one: a balloon system is used in order to signal drivers. When a car occupies the parking lot, the string of the balloon is pulled under the vehicle and when the car leaves the parking lot, the balloon is once again up in the air, easy to be seen by other drivers looking for a free spot.